🎙️ In this episode, Craig Birch exposes one of the most dangerous and overlooked misconfigurations in Active Directory: the PasswordNotRequired attribute.
Most AD admins assume password policies apply to all accounts — but this hidden flag allows accounts to exist with blank passwords, silently bypassing domain-wide protections. Attackers know it. Many admins don’t.
🔍 What You’ll Learn:• What the PasswordNotRequired attribute really does
• How it overrides password length, complexity, and history policies
• Which accounts are most at risk (including service and trust accounts)
• Why this setting leads to instant compromise with no brute-force required
• How to identify and fix vulnerable accounts with PowerShell🛠️ PowerShell Spotlight:# Detect accounts with PasswordNotRequired flag set
Get-ADUser -Filter * -Properties userAccountControl |
Where-Object { ($_.userAccountControl -band 0x0020) } |
Select-Object Name, SamAccountName
# Optional: Clear the flag (example)
Set-ADUser username -PasswordNotRequired $false
âś… Use this to find and lock down accounts silently skipping your password policy.
âś… Quick Takeaways:
This setting bypasses all domain password policy enforcement
Common on legacy accounts, service accounts, or through bad provisioning
Easy path to account compromise and privilege escalation
Most AD auditing tools don’t flag it — but attackers know it’s there
Fix it fast using PowerShell and GPO cleanup
💬 Found this helpful? Like, share, or comment. Want a specific AD risk explained in 10 minutes or less? Drop your request below — we’re listening.
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